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Thursday, June 15, 2017

Throwback Thursday: The Amazing Spider-Man #350 (1991)

The Amazing Spider-Man #350 (1991) -
Throwback Thursday

Writer:
David Michelinie

Art Team:
Erik Larsen, Randy Emberlin, Bob Sharen

Letterer:
Rick Parker

Marvel
Comics

Release Date:
August 1991

Cover Price:
$1.50

Throwback Thursday@bmur3660’s First Comic Book

I know, I
know most of your initial responses to seeing this article on a Thursday are
god damnit Branden your Marvel nonsense is now infecting my god damn week on
more than just Mondays. Well there’s a
reason behind all this nonsense that will come to fruition in the future but in
the meantime this article is a teaser of sorts and a hint of what’s to come.

Long story
short I got a random DM from Jim earlier this week asking me “what was the first
comic I ever read/owned?” Much like that awkward first kiss with a little tongue
involved it’s just something you don’t forget, and the Amazing Spider-Man #350 (a
Giant Sized issue nonetheless) came right to mind immediately. Buried in the depths
of my mom’s basement, I decided to do what any hard working American would, downloaded it off Comixology instead of entertaining looking for that nonsense, to bring you some thoughts. Jump in and see what’s up.

The story is
framed as a one shot, setup as a Dr. Doom vs Spider-Man story (based on cover
art), and doesn’t make you wait very long to get right to the reason you likely
purchased this issue. Spider-Man is in pursuit of a pesky old thief named the
Black Fox (who wears blue and is a white guy so the names perplexing) and
while tailing the crook notices Dr. Doom is also doing the same. Their conflicting interests in this
individual obviously cause a huge dust up, with Spider-Man really taking a molly
whooping at the hands of the ruler of Latveria.

We discover
when Doom catches up to the thief that the Black Fox is responsible for stealing
Doom’s family heirloom, belonging to his mother, and he wants it back or
else! Spider-Man steps in again and
after nearly getting beaten unconscious decides its in his best interests to instead make a deal with Doom to save his own
ass. Spidey guarantees that he will get the jewel back for Doom in 24 hours, to which Doom obliges, since the Black Fox has escaped during the pairs most recent dust up with each
other.

A concust
Peter has a conversation with Mary Jane whose appearance most definitely moved
the needle for 10 year old me (boing!!!). As Peter’s (and my) lady love heads off to work,
Peter hallucinates a conversation with Uncle Ben, due to effects of a
concussion. Despite the experience landing him in a doctor’s office, it does
make Peter realize he has taken it easy on Black Fox to his own detriment in
the past, as Uncle Ben sheds some light on the decisions that lie ahead for
Peter.

Back on his
feet Spider-Man uses a Spider-tracer he placed on Black Fox to track him down, they locate the jewel for Doom together once confronted with danger, leading to another giant
battle for the majority of the third act to begin our issues conclusion. As this strange pairing fight these cultists,
who happen to tie into a past Spider-Man story in a cool callback featuring the
Avengers, Doom arrives noting to Spider-Man his "time period for recovering the jewel
has passed." Doom however gets sucked
into the fight with the cultists, distracting the ragtag group of baddies enough
to allow Spider-Man to recover the jewel, who hands it over to Doom to end the conflict.

Our issue
wraps up with Doom and Spider-Man agreeing to go their separate ways,
Spider-Man breaking the news to Black Fox, that after years of feeling bad for the
old man, this time he’s hauling his ass to jail, and a good end cap of Spidey coming to terms with letting down MJ (again) who was only concerned for his health
along the way. Just a great classic Spider-Man tale that touched all the cliches for little me to enjoy ... and
I just may have liked revisiting it after all these years again even more than I did back
then.

Since this
is a giant sized extravaganza this hallucination of Peter’s with Uncle Ben also
provides a brief recap of Spidey’s origin too, and looking back on it this made
it an ideal issue to grab for someone just grabbing something that interested
them as their first comic. The writing
was classic Marvel comics, with a lot more dialogue than is present in today’s
coming, but much less perceived fluff if you ask me. This was a one shot story that didn’t feel
rushed, happened organically, while providing my favorite plenty of action, and
even some character development along the way. This was a rare case of a comic book cover
living up to the hype with a great companion story inside.

Without
looking at the credits before reading I thought for sure this was a McFarlane production as far as art duties go but I was wrong (just young me playing tricks on old me I guess). However the art throughout the book it still
great none the less, even going as far as giving us some throwback feeling Spider-Man panels
when recapping the origin story. Towards the end of the book you’re provided several
pinup photos that I distinctly remember trying to draw, trace, and re-draw
endless times. This was a comic book
that Mama Dukes paid $1.50 for and I received way more bang for my buck than I
bet she ever even anticipated, so it was a win for everyone involved.

Bits and Pieces

Overall
revisiting my first comic book was something I had a great time doing. The art
and story was classic 1991, just a perfect little one shot versus tale, that entertained 35 year old
me as much as 10 year old me. I didn’t regret buying it back in 1991 and I don’t
regret re-buying it in 2017 … god damn I’m getting old.

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